The BeeHolder, April 2010

ALL beekeepers know that bees use the waggle dance to indicate to their fellows where to find rich sources of nectar and pollen, but did you know the display can be stalled by headbutting the dancer? James Nieh, an associate professor of biology at the University of California in San Diego, says the rude interruption can serve as a warning that the journey could be too risky – if, for example, the foragers had been attacked by rival bees.

The stop sign involves the warning bee vibrating at about 380 times a second for perhaps a tenth of a second, butting or climbing onto her ʻvictimʼ for added emphasis Prof Nieh said this signal and its effect had been observed before, but until now no one had established a ʻclear natural triggerʼ for it. His findings, reported in Current Biology, resulted from experiments on honey bees that were attacked by competitors while foraging for food at an experimental feeder.

BeeMail Feb 2010